US U424 Entire.. Interesting Overprint..

This is the first time I have ever seen this on an early envelope.



Here is the entire cover.

The over print is complete, I just didn't scan all of it.

neat. what does the entire inscription say?

That's a great cover I've never seen anything like it. Can you post a scan of the entire cover?

It's a "Penalty Cover". The overprint means it is to be used only for official (US Government) use.

There is a catalog for these, and it is a collecting niche in US Postal Statinery.

smauggie, thanks. I knew it was a penalty cover, just didn't know they used them back in 1916.

I didn't realize there was a cover for Penalty Mail. What is the name of the catalog?

I believe Penalty Mail covers were first required around 1879? I haven't verified that.

Here is an example from 1888, scan pilfered from a buddy of mine.

True "penalty envelopes" date from July 1884, when Departmental Officials were phased out. Governmental postal stationery (with various warnings and slogans) similar to penalty envelopes were used as early as the Civil War.

Yes, khj, a very fine example of an early Penalty Envelope, with fancy fonts and considerable excess verbiage LOL.

Uh, wait. Were you referring to the cover, or me?

k

I have an album full of pentaly penalty covers with catalog numbers on them, so I assume there is a catalog. If I had to guess it would have been put out by the UPSS.

http://www.upss.org/

The envelope in the OP is usually referred to as a "penalty overprinted" stamped envelope. Those envelopes with a penalty clause but not overprinted on a piece of stationery orignally produced for public use, are referred to a "penalty mail", as having a "penalty imprint", "official mail", etc.

The original catalog for penalty overprinted envelopes was done in 1934 by David H. Burr. He established the system of identifying the overprint "Type" and the return address "Variety". The cover in the OP is Type XIa. No return address variety.

In 1983 Leroy L. Ross published a major update to Burr's work, titled "Penalty Overprinted United States Stamped Envelopes", which was sold by the UPSS and several dealers. He followed that with another update witin a year or two.

In 1993 Ross, Thomas Galloway, and Cary Finder created a new edition, but is was not published due to financial constraints of the UPSS (at that time).

There is now a project underway, lead by Bob Derrick, to revive that 1993 work and publish a new version of the catalog. The UPSS hopes to publish it in the near future.

It's an interesting field. New finds keep popping up.

Also, I would say the envelope in the OP is a U420.